State Rep. Jon Keyser, R-Evergreen, an attorney and decorated Air Force reservist, is preparing to launch a likely-to-be well-funded campaign in a crowded but mostly lackluster primary field of Republicans hoping to challenge U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, bringing star quality and credibility to an election his backers believe will turn on national security.

“Republicans have been waiting for a first-tier quality candidate, and now they have one,” said former state Rep. Rob Witwer, who held the House seat Keyser won last year. “Jon brings gravitas, real world experience and a fresh perspective. Most importantly, he can win.”

“I’m strongly considering it,” Keyser said in an interview with The Colorado Statesman this week. “Right now I’m focused on national security and serving our country in uniform as a member of the Air Force Reserve.”

Keyser, who holds the rank of major in the Air Force Reserve, has been deployed on a training mission in Florida this month as part of a mission to combat terrorist and transnational criminal networks in Central and South America, a spokesman said. He returns to Colorado next week.

“There’s not a campaign yet,” Keyser. “But as I spend a few weeks serving in the military, I think now more than ever, our nation is at a crossroads and the threats we face are enormous. This is a pivotal time in our nation’s history.”

While Keyser maintains he’ll make the decision whether to run over the holidays, sources close to him say to expect an announcement after the first of the year. And other Republicans with knowledge of the preparation for Keyser’s campaign say to expect a big splash when he makes it official.

Republicans have struggled to find a candidate of stature to take on Bennet, considered the lone vulnerable Democratic senator in next year’s election. Pointing to recent polling they say puts Bennet in a worse position than Democrat Mark Udall was at the same time in the election cycle – U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner went on to unseat Udall by 2 points in a Republican wave year – top GOP strategists are privately crowing that Keyser brings national security credibility and and a made-for-TV quality to a race that has so far mostly been lacking it.

The GOP primary has been dominated to date by conservative state Sen. Tim Neville, R-Littleton, who announced his run in late October and has strong grassroots support, but it’s been growing on a near-weekly basis, with a fresh entry scheduled this week by Jefferson County Commissioner Don Rosier. Republicans in the running include El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn and former Aurora Councilman Ryan Frazier. Businessman and former congressional candidate Robert Blaha is weighing a bid, as is El Paso County Commissioner Peggy Littleton and state Sen. Ray Scott, R-Grand Junction. Other Republicans are rumored to be considering a run.

Following a recent visit to Washington, D.C., where Keyser attended the Republican Jewish Coalition’s presidential forum luncheon last week as an invited guest on a day off from his duties, he received $3 million in commitments of soft money to back his campaign, said a source familiar with the matter.

A source in the Washington foreign policy community had high praise for Keyser after meeting him on the trip, saying he was “blown away” by the Colorado Republican. “He schooled them on the ground intel of the region,” the source continued, saying Keyser has “absolute and complete foreign policy chops.”

What’s more, Keyser’s background as a ground combat veteran in the war on terror – he was awarded a Bronze star and served in Iraq and Afghanistan – could shine in a race Republicans close to Keyser say will almost certainly be dominated by questions of national security, according to recent polling cited by his backers.

“I have first-hand experience on national security matters on things like Iran and Afghanistan,” Keyser said. “I’m afraid it’s almost impossible to defeat an enemy some people in Washington don’t even acknowledge exists. The fact is, we’re in a global war against Islamic extremism. I’ve learned that dangerous times require serious leaders.”

Allowing that recent events – the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, as well as across the Middle East and in North Africa – might have drawn increased attention to the matter, Keyser points out that he’s been working to defeat terrorists since graduating the Air Force Academy after 9/11.

“This isn’t a new issue for me. National security and terrorism has been something I’ve been focused on for 15 years. Recent events have certainly caught my attention, and I’ve been focused on those very closely, but this is something I’ve been dealing with for a very long time. This isn’t new to me,” he said.

Although he had trained to be a pilot, Keyser said the fact the country was involved in two simultaneous ground wars when he graduated encouraged him to consider a different path, serving in an elite special operations team that performed “capture-kill” missions.

“I did 107 successful capture-kills,” he said, “direct action missions that happened typically in the middle of the night when we would blow the door off a house. We were going after leaders, we weren’t going after street thugs. These were terrorists. These were guys who were plotting to kill Americans.”

Then, his voice hardening, Keyser recalled his return stateside.

“I came back from Iraq, got a car and went to Arlington National Cemetery,” he said. I went there to bury a teammate of mine who was killed on one of the last missions I was on. To me, it’s very personal.”

Turning his attention to state politics, Keyser said he was confident he’d be able to stand out in the primary, which will be decided in June.

“If I do decide to get in this race, absolutely there will be a place for me. Unfortunately, it will be because I have the expertise we require as a country,” he said.

“Putting the military and national security aside,” Keyser continued, “I think there are some really important votes and important philosophies that will separate me. The single most important vote separating fiscal conservatives from establishment conservatives was the vote on the budget, the largest in state history. I voted against it.”

Neville voted for the state budget, Keyser backers are quick to point out.

Although pegged a rising star in the GOP, Keyser mostly kept a low profile during his first year in the Legislature. He points to legislation he sponsored to repeal unnecessary laws and regulations, audit government agencies and cut taxes. “Those are the things I ran on and those have been my priorities,” he said, adding, “I’ve succeeded at the Capitol by working in a bipartisan fashion without compromising my principles.”

Kelly Maher, executive director of conservative advocacy group Compass Colorado, stressed in an interview with The Statesman that she doesn’t take sides in Republican primaries but nonetheless sounded dazzled by the prospect of a Keyser candidacy.

“Jon definitely has a lot of really great experience, both as a combat veteran and in the Legislature,” she said. “I’ve heard a lot of great names for the Senate race. One thing I like about Jon is his juxtaposition to Michael Bennet. He understands what he believes and portrays that really well and would be a great counterpoint to Sen. Bennet.”

Keyser, a Colorado native, was born in Salida and grew up around the state, including in Durango and Montrose. After graduating from the Air Force Academy, he worked oil rigs on the Western Slope to pay for his studies at the University of Denver School of Law – a contrast to Bennet, Maher said, who she called “the consummate East Coast liberal.” Keyser practices corporate law at Hogan Lovells, one of the largest law firms in the world.

“One of the great things about Jon is he comes to the table with a lot of energy, like Cory Gardner,” Maher said. “That is something Republicans definitely would like to recapture. Cory came into a race that a lot of people thought would be tough, and he came in smiling and positive and had that energy.”

Keyser said he was inspired by Gardner’s election last year, the first time a sitting senator from Colorado had been defeated in nearly four decades.

“I was elected to the House of Representatives because the electorate is hungry for nontraditional candidates that are ready to bear the torch and have fresh ideas. This is a new Republican Party. We have an opportunity in Colorado for a generational shift. We saw the first part of that in 2014, but I think that was the first wave, and I think it’s going to continue.”

While the election might be decided by national security concerns, Keyser added that he wasn’t arguing the country stay on a permanent war footing.

“Something I think is important that people realize is, we don’t have to live like this. If we acknowledge this threat and we defeat this threat, we don’t have to live with enormous amounts of insecurity at home and abroad. There is a choice,” he said.

“I’m looking forward to spending Christmas with my two kids and my dog and my wife, and we’ll take a close look at what we’re going to do in the next year. No matter what it is, I’m sure it’ll involve public service.”

– ernest@coloradostatesman.com